Antonia Malchik

Photo of Salto Angel (Angel Falls), official name: Kerepakupai merú - by Rich Childs, via Flickr/Wikipedia.

This is Angel Falls in Venezuela, with its 807-metre sheer plunge - the tallest waterfall on our planet.

Except - it isn't. There's one that's bigger. MUCH bigger. And when I learned about it this week, my mind was fully blown.

OK. Buckle up! (Especially if you don't have a head for heights.)

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“I feel, even before my voice is heard, someone coopting it, evaluating it, and appraising it as a tool that is more or less useful for something.”

—Yevgenia Belorussets, Ukraine, On Being Unbreakable
www.isolarii.com/yevgenia-bel...

On greed: how much is enough? If you’re new here, welcome to On the Commons!

"What breaks a belief in kinship and reciprocity—how does one lose the knowledge that it is mutual care, not taking more for ourselves, that gives the best assurance of security?"

antonia.substack.com/p/on-greed-h...

"Debt is a claim of ownership by the wealthy of the productive capacity of other people."
--Ben G. Price, "How Wealth Rules the World"

The Doctrine of Discovery's Disastrous Legacy Essay

The 500-year-old Doctrine of Discovery is one of the bases for nearly every claim of absolute land ownership or property right and are much of the reason that it’s so difficult to defend the rights of life and well-being over the right to extract and profit.

antonia.substack.com/p/the-doctri...

Two Navajo dancers in traditional dress address an unseen crowd beneath projections of Indigenous artwork.

A vertical mural fills a space alongside a staircase, showing Navajo constellations and Hopi symbols.

Photos from yesterday's unveiling of an Indigenous (Navajo/Hopi) mural at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. Beautiful artwork by Nanibah Chacon and Gerald Dawavendewa celebrating Indigenous ways of knowing the night sky. 🧪🔭

Surveillance and Suspicion From the Margins A Venezuelan anthropologist reflects on distrust he felt from residents of informal settlements in Chile—and how that track global trends.

“People’s traditional community ties are being severed into fragile, ephemeral affiliations by globalization, rising inequality, and displacement.”

Luis Alfred Briceño González @sapiens.org on the growth of societal mistrust in Chile, and its unexpected iterations
www.sapiens.org/culture/fear...

This is so cool @melissasevigny.bsky.social !

Moral codes that withstand the wreckage of history Oglala Lakota Artspace, a mixed-use Native arts and cultural center on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, will receive 5% of On the Commons paid subscription revenue from now until the end of...

"The moral codes we live by don't have to be immaculate. They do not have to check every box of what we think is expected of us, or what we expect of ourselves. All they must be—this is harder than it sounds—is sturdy enough to withstand the wreckage of history."
antonia.substack.com/p/moral-code...

Archival VHS footage from the post-Soviet era documents a shifting world, with poignant echoes in the present moment in this film directed by Max Rykov @nobudge.bsky.social buff.ly/gsO6KeH

Horned lark, just south of Malta, Montana

American Prairie acquires Anchor Ranch, opens Bullwhacker Road Purchase restores public access to Bullwhacker Road and 50,000 acres of public land in Upper Missouri River Breaks

American Prairie purchases 67,960 acres, the second biggest purchase in the non-profits 24 year history. They plan to open over 50,000 acres to the public.

americanprairie.org/the-latest/a...

No suffering, no death, no limits: the nanobots pipe dream | Aeon Essays Thirty years ago, nanotech was about to change everything. Let’s not get tricked again by Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

In this piece for Aeon, I argue that, while nanotechnology is now a very real and mature field, a popular early vision of it was an example of what I am calling an "oneiric technology": a fantasy of the sort that Silicon Valley loves.
aeon.co/essays/no-su...

Mentorship and hope can solve the youth mental health crisis | Aeon Essays Youths around the world are in a profound crisis of despair. Adults must help them to believe that the future will be better

Youths around the world are in a profound crisis of despair. What can adults do to help them to believe that the future will be better?

Sunset over the prairie, eastern Montana

Mentorship and hope can solve the youth mental health crisis | Aeon Essays Youths around the world are in a profound crisis of despair. Adults must help them to believe that the future will be better

“Young people crippled with despair and anxiety are far more likely to withdraw from society. Restoring hope is not a guaranteed solution, but it is a critical first step.”

Carol Graham @cgbrookings.bsky.social @aeon.co on her research on mentorships, hope, and despair.

aeon.co/essays/mento...

No suffering, no death, no limits: the nanobots pipe dream | Aeon Essays Thirty years ago, nanotech was about to change everything. Let’s not get tricked again by Silicon Valley’s magical thinking

Philip Ball @aeon.co on how the difference between early nanotech hype and the reality of nanotech today can help us understand what’s really going on with AI: aeon.co/essays/no-su...

“Capital transforms what is alive into resources that can be sold, and as a result, profound human needs for connection, . . . for a true place of one’s own, for the experience of identity-in-connection, grow increasingly difficult to satisfy.”
—Andreas Weber, Enlivenment

It is solved by walking - High Country News The path to fixing our broken communities is forged by footsteps.

Solvitur ambulando, "it is solved by walking": communities and connection
www.hcn.org/issues/51-8/...

Oligarchy: the power of wealth If you’re new here, welcome to On the Commons!

On wealth inequality, power hoarding, land theft across the centuries, and Aristotle on oligarchy.
antonia.substack.com/p/oligarchy-...